Thursday, October 30, 2008

This rest of this book reveals even more the odd relationship that Artie and his father share. It also reveals how the Holocaust took its affect on not only his father, but how Artie feels about many situations as well.Having to go out to visit his father, he doesn't want to do it but he goes. I couldn't imagine then pawning him off on my fathers next door neighbors to keep an eye on him because I, his child does not want to watch after him myself. I think that it is incredibly frustrating to Artie obviously tha this father is such a horder of unnecessary items but what can he do?On the other hand Vladek is affected with how he buys things, especially food. He even admits on page 78 how he cannot throw away food after Hitler. How awful that must be to have an event so large as the Holocaust completely take control and affect your life not only during, but for years after the event occured. I also wonder how it affected those Germans who were killing all of those people each and every day. I could only assume how that could maybe drive a man crazy, needing to kill more and more every day. How was their life affected after the Holocaust was over? Did they feel the need to keep killing?I also found it interesting again in the remainer of this book on how Vladek survived. How he used craft to get into the infermatory to get better treatment and food; but to also help them out as much as he could so that they would like him. He was constatly gainning more and more friends for help along the way that honestly in the end saved his life. Thinking of all of the small things that he did such as giving bread so two men would carry him to the train; I would never be able to think of such crafty things in order to stay alive. But I suppose when your life is on the line then everything changes.The last thing that I found very surprising about this portion of the book was Vladek racism towards the black "dog" I guess in this book. I was and at the same time was not shocked at how he ached. The man was completely nice and polite but just from simple expereince Vladek didn't like him at all.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

In this section it was interesting to see how Artie responed t0 his fathers past. For instance, he was feeling in a way guilty because he father had survived the Holocaust, or guilty over the fact that his life is a lot easier than their's was. Even when he describes sibling rivalry between him and a photograph of his dead brother. I think that he wants to know more the people that died such as his mother and brother rather than who was given to him; his father and Mala who bother don't seem to be much of a help.I think that he avoids as much as he can the problems between his fathers relationship with Mala because he truly has no intrest in it. I think that he just wants his own mother for his father so that he could stop worrying about him and so his father would stop complainning about Mala.Their relationship continues to be so odd between father and son. Only staying through the weekend even though he knows that his father is so alone and feels completely by himself. He even tried to pawn off his own father on the neighbors, who don't want to look after him any more than Artie does.

Monday, October 27, 2008

This book was a good story to me, I think that it portrayed the story of that time period very well. It showed step by step what Jewish people of that time really had to go through. What was a real eye opener for me what the time period of which all of this took palce. Now I have read a lot of the other books about the Hollocaust but I never realised that it occured in the fourties, that was shocking to me ralizing that that was around the time of WWII and things like that.I really liked how crafty they had to be to simply survive. No one was family anymore, but just people trying to survive. That is astonishing becaue no one could really just help others out of the kindness of their hearts because brutal death was the consequence.For my groups discussion there was a lot of instances where the text was related to the pictures. For example when Vladeks son comes back to his home in the beginning of the book and he hadn't been back in a while, and Mala put his coat on a wire hanger, and how upset and frustrated Valdek gets with her. Another isntance was when Anja was reading the letter from Lucia about Valdek, and how it shows her crying as she is reading.This was book was really good, though I do get confused in some points simply because of the talking about how the book makes them speak in broken english sometimes. but otherwise I enjoy oddly reading about the Holocaust and Jewish victims of this awful time period because it is history, and it really happened to people. I think what makes this story so amazing to me is that there are still people that are alive today that lived through this, that can relate to stories that are told about this time in history.

Monday, October 13, 2008

In the beginning of three, I loved his writing relationship with Raina. It was so real and they put so much of themselves into what they were writing that it made it all like a fairytale. The blanket that she made for Craig was nice because it made him completely connected to her, when he left her he would still have something special that she made for him. I definitely thought that her brother would turn around and end up talking to Craig and getting over him being there but he stood his ground. It was surprising that he got that mad but Laura loved him so much and his company at the house.Craig and Raina really seemed to connect but I think that it was soon for such a visit for Craig to take, they really didn't know each other that well before he came to visit her for 2 weeks. They definitely liked the thought of one another, and the company of the other but it didn't seem within the company of one another that they both knew how to take it. It seems to me that if you like someone that much and enjoy being around them then you wouldn't care who is around to just sit next to them or hold there hand or anything. They seemed very seperated while during the day which I don't understand for how much they say they like each other. Writing to someone you do get to know them on another level which is also really good, but I think that is why they didn't connect as well when they were together all the time because they weren't used to that constant company.Craig seemed to look up to Raina in the way that she took care of her siblings Ben and Laura. But I think that he blamed himself for what he allowed to happen to his younger brother Phil, saying on page 291, "But I'd been too weak to look out for my own little brother." I think he truly blames himself for that and is another reason why he feels so connected and says that he loves Raina so early.When Raina asked Craig why he said that he loved her she was ocnfused, but felt as though she had to say it back...so she did. Which I forgot about, being that it didn't seem real or sincere at all. And following saying that she loved him with a where does that leave them now and so on. But when she asks him not to ever leave her and he says that he won't and promises, that seems more like she truly does want him. But more for comfort that something is her life is right, and not falling apart and stressful like her parents divorce or takingg care of her siblings. But the one line that I truly believed her on was the note that she stuck within the blanket that she helped him packed made me believe her that much more that she truly loved him. Until the random break-up of course which made complete sense with there distance, but it was a great looking relationship while it lasted.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Blankets reminded me of a real relationship between siblings that would argue over having to share a bed but then be best friends in the next scene. It was a very typical brother to brother relationship in my eyes that Phil was much to old to be playing childish games with Craig, but when it came to making plans and ideas to get what they both wanted, such as the fan on those hot nights, they'd work together.The drawings in this book are much different than in Fun Home, the second I opened the book I was shocked because the drawings were so loud, and etchy. Whereas in Fun Home they were actual scenes that you could fully make out and put yourself in. There house as a child in Blankets was just very sketched out and tough to get a full true picture of it.I got very curious around pages 29-31 when the babysitter was taking the boys into a seperate room to tell them a very "funny" joke that she had to tell seperatly. It was never talked about later on in the book but the way that Thompson chose to draw Phil when he came out of the room was as in something had happened to him in that room that was traumatizing for him to brin gup again. I was waiting for some type of explination of what had went on but he just doesn't give you anything.Also in this book the lines were much harder for me to deciphor what was important and a noticable change compared to what was not. In Fun Home it was easy to show a change in the fathers facial expressions because the drawings were much easier to see and understand, and also Bechdel made lines that would stick out and be noticable to the reader.One other thing about Phil is that he is always timid, which makes me think that much more that something more must have happened to him as a child. Never mind all of the bullying that he had to go through his entire life, but something more real and unnoticed yet that he will uncover later in the story.

Monday, October 6, 2008

In these chapters, it reveals how she has her first lesbian experience which is ironic that it came in the same chapter when she found out that her own father was gay. Relating his death to other books made sense, and was something that I would have never thought of. She new he loved books obviously but it would always be a great wonder if that is actually what his intentions were, to kill himself close to when other writers or characters had died. In chapters following that it was always shown with emphasis that he alwways tried to make her as much of a girl as he could make her.On page 97 when he is shoving that hairpin back in her hair, I don't think he would have honestly had that much concern wheather it was in her hair or not if she didn't show such great signs of wanting to be a boy.I thought it was incredibly weird how her father had a picture of Roy within their family photos. Anyone at any given point could have found it wheather he was dead or alive and brought up questions about it. Also how he would bring his latest boyfriend on family vacations would be a giveaway in my mind. Who has a male babysitter that is in high school that you want to travel with you and your family when your wife could? But he always would go places where he knew she wouldn't, so it always seemed to solve that problem for him.When she explains seeing the woman in the lunch place in Philadelphia she says that she recogonized her with great joy. I think that it must have been incredbily difficult for her to try and figure out and harness those feelings that she had about her sexuality. But now actually seeing a woman looking, dressing and acting exactly how she wants to made it settleing i think to let her know that there are others out there but heartbreaking because she can't be that person now.Showing time in this novel simply through words and not through the gutter or anything is when she explains on page 168 how life continues after the play had ended when she is still getting her period. Also, movement is also shown when they are showing talking to two people like on pages 167 and 181.Lastly, on page 191 when she talks about looking at herself in the mirror and calls herself a faggot, I think that he father raised her (not intentionally but just by chance) to be completely ashames of her sexuality. And by her not knowing what to feel or think that is exactly what had happened, and she further explains how she made no parallel to her and her fathers sexuality. But yes I think that being a homosexual can be a learned act depending in some cases maybe how or who you are raised by, but in her situation I don't think that it could have been that way. Her fathers sexuality choices were never out in the open like that to his children so I don't think that would have had much affect on any of them anyway.